Iran Focus: Tehran, Feb. 07  One out of every ten people living in the streets in Iran are university-educated, according to the head of Social Affairs in the Tehran Governor's Office. Zahra Nejadbahram said, "9.4 percent of street-sleepers attending Tehran's four day-care centres are university graduates".

Washington Post: Top U.S. officials expressed confidence yesterday that no Iran-style Islamic government would take hold in Iraq despite the expected rise to power there of religious Shiite parties following last week's elections. With the Shiites widely predicted to dominate a new constitutional assembly, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld played down reports that leading Shiite clerics ...

The Guardian: Condoleezza Rice turned Washington's rhetoric on Iran up another notch yesterday, telling Iranians they would have to "live up to their international obligations" to avoid a conflict with Israel. But back in Washington, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, struck a more dovish note, saying the estimates he had seen said Iran was "years away" from building a nuclear bomb, and that the White House had meanwhile opted for diplomacy.

Daily Telegraph: Iran dared America to attack it yesterday as the senior hawks in President George W Bush's administration all but admitted that Washington faced a dilemma in trying to prevent Teheran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

AFP: Iran's judiciary has shut down a cosmetics and personal hygiene exhibition in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad after a judge apparently decided that only women should operate the stalls. "This judge came to the exhibition and grabbed some posters from the stalls and said that only women could run the booths," an informed official was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency on Sunday.

AFP: Diplomacy and unity among the world's "great democracies" are key to ensuring Iran meets its international obligations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. The Islamic Republic had become a major obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East and must be prevented from developing nuclear weapons, she told BBC television.

AFP: The United States backs a diplomatic effort by European nations to try to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program but has not "eliminated any alternative," US Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. "I think there's a good-faith effort under way by our European allies to try to resolve this issue diplomatically.

AFP: The UN's top official on women's rights chastised Iran on Sunday over what she said were abuses and discrimination built in to the Islamic Republic's laws.
"In the family, women face psychological, physical and sexual violence, and gender discrimination," said Yakin Erturk, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.

Reuters: Iran would both retaliate and accelerate its drive to master nuclear technology if the United States or Israel attacked its atomic facilities, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator warned on Sunday. Hassan Rohani, secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, also told Reuters there was nothing the West could offer Tehran that would persuade it to scrap a nuclear programme which Washington fears may ...

Reuters: Iran, accused by Washington of developing nuclear arms, has rejected European demands to abandon key atomic processes that could be used to make weapons, Iranian and Western diplomats say. On the eve of a third round of talks with Iran in Geneva on Tuesday, France, Britain and Germany are faced with the task of persuading Iran to transform a temporary suspension of its nuclear fuel production programme into a permanent cessation.

Scotland on Sunday: SABRE-rattling by George W Bush against Iran as the worlds primary state sponsor of terrorism has given the mullahs who run the country the opportunity to crack down on dissenting voices. With parliament firmly in their grip, the hardliners in the Tehran theocracy have increased pressure on moderate-minded politicians, journalists, writers and internet bloggers.

The Independent: Condoleezza Rice sought to keep the pressure on Iran yesterday as she raced around Europe and the Middle East on her inaugural tour as US Secretary of State, urging Russia to withhold fuel from Tehran to stop what Washington says is the country's drive to build a nuclear bomb. Ms Rice, who congratulated Poland on its "extraordinary" contribution in Iraq during a three-hour visit to Warsaw, flew on to Turkey and a meeting with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Los Angeles Times: Four Iranian brothers jailed for more than three years as threats to U.S. national security have rejected a government offer of freedom, choosing to remain locked up rather than accept some of the restrictions governing their release.

AP: A government investigation into lucrative illicit weapons sales by officials loyal to former President Leonid Kuchma has led to secret indictments or arrests of at least six arms dealers accused of selling nuclear-capable missiles to Iran and China, a high-ranking intelligence official said Friday. The deals, which violate international non-proliferation treaties, put pressure on Ukraine's new president to halt the country's ...

Iran Focus: Paris, Feb. 05 - Iran's main opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, issued a statement today condemning the French government's decision to ban a peaceful protest by Iranian exiles in Paris against the dictatorship ruling Iran, despite prior approval. The NCRI called France's decision to cancel the rally "kowtowing to the demands of the medieval regime seeking to expand its repression from Tehran to Paris", adding "French officials ...

AFP: Every ballot in Iraq's elections was a vote against the United States, but the United States did not understand the message and should be be kicked out, a top hardline Iranian cleric told Iraqis Friday. "Every vote counted as a big 'no' to the US, meaning that they should get out of Iraq," Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, head of the Guardians Council political watchdog, said in a Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University.

Iran Focus: London, Feb. 04  In a conference in Whitehall with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the newly-appointed United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticised Iran's human rights violations and accused the clerical state of running a nuclear weapons program under the guise of civilian nuclear activities.